Mystic River

Rating:
Summary: No Redeeming Value
Review: "Mystic River" received reviews that caused me to request it from the library, and I eagerly awaited its arrival. To my dismay, the novel has turned out to be, in my opinion, a story of dark and ugly dimensions with no redeeming value. When I concluded it, I wondered why I had bothered. After only a short way into the book, I put it down -- then decided to keep at it because of the reviews -- surely, I thought, it will get better. Yes, the author can write -- but to what purpose, except to horribly intertwine a number of characters in a hideously sad tale. Were it a Stephen King novel, one could put out of mind some of the more gross aspects of the story -- but this story is written within a reality context and therefore the sheer ugliness of the plot only depresses. I have rated the book 2 stars and not just 1 because the author does write realistic dialogue and tells his story in an adequate manner. But please, don't bother to read it if you don't want to be saddened and depressed, and very much let down at its conclusion -- sorry, "no redeeming value."

Rating:
Summary: rating of Harpers unabridged audiotape version ONLY
Review: This is a terrific story, and the reader of the audiotape version, Scott Brick, does a very good (though not inspired) job. However, the physical quality of these audiocassette tapes is SO UNBELIEVABLY BAD that I feel a responsiblity to warn other potential customers.

I listen to audiotapes constantly--or at least I did before this tape literally destroyed both the cassette player in my car as well as one of the boombox cassette players I use at home for listening. I have never in all of the years I have listened to audiotapes had a tape of such poor quality used for an audiobook--not even cheap children's tapes are this bad.

First, the tape was so thin and flimsy that it stretched out any time it was rewound or fast forwarded. Secondly, one of the tapes not only caused my car cassette player to stop playing--the player was so badly damaged it could not be repaired and the tape had to be cut out of it--it couldn't be released. Initially assuming it was the player that damaged the tape, I called Harper for a replacement audio tape for that particular cassette and just started listening to the next tape.

However, the next tape behaved the same way--no matter which cassette player I used. Thus, I ended up with seven out of a box of 10 cassettes damaged, one of them completely destroyed before I figured out that these tapes are so flimsy they can only be played with extreme care and vigilance not to rewind, fast forward or in any way put pressure on them. If I wanted to rewind, I had to flip the cassette over and play it for a while, then flip it back--otherwise the cassette tape got damaged and screwed up whatever player was being used--two of which are now useless. This was the only way I could figure out to avoid the problem and I only figured it out in time to protect the last three cassettes of the set.

To add insult to injury, the recording had "echoes". So after the reader finished a sentence and paused, you could hear talking in the background. At first I thought it was a radio in the background of the recording--weird, but it was all I could think of. After a while I realized the sound was actually the same voice as the reader saying the same words as I had just heard--just with a time delay!! It was unbelievably distracting and annoying--whether listening to a walkman or to the speakers of a cassette deck.

From the copyrights on the bottom of the box I gather there is some sort of arrangement between Harper and Books on Tape--although the readers are not the ones used by Books on Tape for their own unabridged versions, so I am not sure what exactly that arrangement is. All I know is that I have never had a Books on Tape version of such poor quality--and at (the price) it's not exactly cheap either.

This unabridged cassette version is truly (bad)--and the only reason I didn't rate it lower is because the reading itself is good and the book is very suspenseful--quite enjoyable if you don't have to worry about all of your electronics being destroyed and tapes having to be cut to get them out of the mangled innards of a cassette deck.

Harpers ought to be ashamed of selling products of such unbelievably poor quality.

Rating:
Summary: A stunningly beautiful book
Review: I don't know how to express in words how unbelievably amazing this novel is, just please go out and read it!!

Rating:
Summary: Psychologically Thrilling Masterpiece
Review: "There are threads, threads in our lives. You pull one, and everything else gets affected." - Jimmy Marcus

Mystic River is much more than a good crime story. It's more about people. Family, friends and neighbors. It's about the human psyche. How we deal with our pasts, our secrets, our fears and our demons. It's a story of revenge. Or perhaps it's a story of justice. The Mystic River actually exists in Boston and acts as one of the main characters here, providing the dramatic backdrop for many scenes and events. The river flows near the Irish-American streets of Boston, a working-class neighborhood where three friends began their lives and remained, becoming permanent fixtures in the community.

In 1975 Jimmy Marcus, Sean Devine and Dave Boyle were those three friends. Friends until Dave got into that car with two strangers, escaping four days later forever changed. Although the details were never discussed, that event became a defining moment in all three lives. Twenty-five years later . . . Jimmy, an ex-con with mob connections, lost his first wife to cancer during his two-year stretch at Deer Island Correctional. Straight now for fifteen years, he has a new wife and three daughters. But his past remains with him, ready to explode like a loose cannon. Sean is a homicide detective just coming off a suspension and is still in love with his wife who walked out on him a year ago. Dave, married with a son, tries to be a good husband and father, but is tormented by the demons born in his past, trying desperately to keep them submerged.

When Jimmy's oldest daughter Katie is murdered, the three boyhood friends a thrown face-to-face again. In their own way, they each share in the tragedy of Katie's death as well as that terrible day back when they were eleven years old. The questions loom throughout their lives. What if Dave never got into that car? What if Jimmy and Sean got into that car with Dave?

Dennis Lehane writes in a way that pulls the reader deep within the conscious and subconscious minds of the three main characters, as well as the others. You can actually FEEL what each character is experiencing and what they're thinking. Never before have I felt such literary characters so completely. I wasn't familiar with Lehane's writing before, but am SO grateful I picked up this one.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece of its genre
Review: The genre is dark, gritty thrillers and Dennis Lehane's "Mystic River" is one of the best.

I'm getting really tired of reviews that whine about profanity, darkness and weaknesses of character in fictional characters (or real ones, for that matter). I don't read (unless I'm reading fantasy) to get some glossed-over view of the world. I read to learn about other people's truths, the way other people see reality, and so enhance my own ... and reality is often profane, dark and marked by people with serious character defects.

You'll get all of that in this book, and it's so well done. I admire Lehane's ability to make flawed people likeable (Jimmy Marcus). And also his ability to make me feel guilty about not liking (in the least little bit) the character of Dave Boyle. I felt like I should feel some empathy for Boyle because of what happened to him, but he was just so annoyingly weak and self-pitying and pathetic. What ends up happening to him is partly his own fault. It's inevitable he'll come to a bad (if surprising) end. It's a credit to Lehane's masterful sense of character that Boyle annoyed me so much ... and it's a credit to Lehane that he made Boyle such an annoying character, not a politically correct move.

This is a suspenseful thriller, yet Lehane also manages to pull off a morality tale with the ending, and thereby to elevate the book and the genre.

I love the deliberate, disciplined pacing of the book. Because Lehane is so disciplined, he gives himself plenty of time to give us a great sense of place and develop the characters. He elevates what could be a pulp novel to literature.

The book is notable for its sense of character and of place. The dialog is very good. And there's nothing cardboard about it--it has a depth that leaves me with a lingering sense of the neighborhood and Jimmy Marcus and his store long after I put the book down.

I read this in a couple of sittings knowing nothing of any upcoming movie. Now I want to see the movie because I hear it's also outstanding. Read this book--it's well worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: One of a kind
Review: If you look up "Excellent character development" in the dictionary, it will undoubtedly say, "See Mystic River." Of all the books I have ever read, this one tops the charts with not only that aspect but also for plotting and suspense. With character-driven scenes on the same level as Jackson McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD or Leonard's GET SHORTY, this stellar novel "moves." It's like a combination of Raymond Chandler and some of the past literary greats in that it is not only riveting, but extremely literary-a rarity nowadays. The material alone is extraordinary, but what the author does with it is even more so. Buy it, read it, pass it on, and then buy yourself another copy as you'll want to read it more than once.

Rating:
Summary: Dennis Done Did It
Review: Mystic River was the second of Dennis Lehane's novels that I read, and inspired by Shutter Island, I figured I'd read this one to see if he had the consistency that seems to be hard to keep with a lot of writers. He successfully made a hit, having this book that goes deep into the mind of many different characters other than the main ones he's "required" to (Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, Dave Boyle) and gives us a feel for their wives, which are usually the pillars that hold the husbands up, especially in this novel, which has that theme in it as well as whatever else there is (figure out after you read it).

Its a Whodunnit placed in a town split by the upper and lower classes, sort of, and there are enough coincidences to place blame as soon as you read... the back of the book. Lace up your reading glasses and find a good chair to sit in comfortably for hours, because after you get to about mid-book, you wont want to put the ending off for too much longer!

Rating:
Summary: Compelling,Fast-Paced,and Incredible
Review: I saw the movie in February after it's re-release and loved it.
It's #2 on my Top 10 List and I had a strong urge to read the book.The book did not dissapoint me,but I liked the movie more than the book,it might be because I saw the movie first,however that i'll never know.But the book is about three friends:
Jimmy Marcus,Sean Devine,and Dave Boyle.One day while playing in the street a car stops,and the strangers inside kidnap Dave
and change his life forever.He escapes four days later and the friendship is broken.But years later Jimmy's beautiful daughter Katie is kidnapped and Dave is the prime suspect.Sean and his partner Whitey are the investigators and when all the evidence piles up the end is shocking.I've never read a novel by Dennis Lehane and one of the things I loved about his writing is his dialouge.It's great,it's almost like a film by Quentin Tarantino in a sense.He manages to show you the characters pain without dragging out the story and making is stupid.Read this novel.
B.

Rating:
Summary: Who Needs This Garbage?
Review: Does the world really need more books about pyschos and serial killers? First of all, it's become a boring cliche, and Mystic River is almost interchangeable beyond some details with too many other dreary and disgusting (non)mysteries. Second, does the world really need this theme perpetuated? Lehane may have made a financial killing here, but in spreading the "romance" of pyschokillers he's done us all a disservice. Maybe this is corny, idealistic raving, but you've got to start somewhere in trying to make the world a better place. And anyway, in the end, this book is dull. I've got to believe its success is pure hype and not based on its (lack of) literary merits.

Rating:
Summary: Slow to start yet interesting finish
Review: Dennis Lehane's Mystic River had a slow start. Yet around the middle, when each character was explored at a deeper level, the story began to get interesting. The ending was extremeley disturbing; you definitely finish this novel feeling unfulfilled, like the story isnt finished. Characters you initally hated, you begin to love; characters you initally loved you end up hating. Very twisted ending but an overall unresolved feeling.